Precambrian Worm
The Precambrian Worms were a species of giant, fog-dwelling, carnivorous worm from the Precambrian. Characteristics Precambrian Worms were roughly four - six feet in length, with a large, fat green body lined with large, hair-like spines, giving them a loose resemblance to sea cucumbers. The Worms were blind, but apparently had a good sense of touch and hearing. The Worms were also carnivorous, and they possessed a retractable proboscis at the front end of their body, containing a tongue lined with sharp teeth. Precambrian Worms fed through their proboscis either by attempting to swallow their prey whole or by slowly eating through their prey's flesh whle they were still alive. The Worms could also fire out a black, tar-like organic liquid from their proboscis like a projectile, probably to help locate nearby prey. As lifeforms originating from the Precambrian, the Worms could only breathe in the sulfuric gases of their environment's atmosphere, and couldn't survive in direct exposure to the present's oxygenated atmosphere for more than a few moments. When Precambrian Worms came into contact with a mix of oxygen and heat, their bodies would swell and gruesomely explode. The Precambrian Worms' young lived inside their parents' bodies, and if and when adult Worms died and released their spawn, the young would make a fleeting attempt to burrow into a new host's skin. (Episode 2.2) Incursions and encounters Episode 2.2 A large number of Precambrian Worms came through an Anomaly into an Inner-London office block in the present when the Precambrian atmosphere poured through the Anomaly and made the building habitable to the Worms. One Worm attacked and killed a janitor when he found the Anomaly, and Armstrong was later killed by the Worms as well when he and Cooper found the Anomaly too. The skyscraper was evacuated due to the staff mistaking the Precambrian fog for smoke from a fire, but in one glass-walled meeting room a group of executives refused to leave. Terry, the man leading the company, eventually left the meeting room to investigate the fog, and was attacked and killed by the Worms. )]] Later, Nick Cutter and Stephen Hart arrived at the skyscraper's cafeteria, and they and Cooper were attacked by a Worm which Cutter killed with a fire axe. Cutter and Stephen, along with Cooper, escaped the cafeteria, pursued by another Worm. The Worm seized Cooper by her ankle, but Cutter and Stephen jammed the cafeteria door on the Worm's proboscis. Separated from the fog, the Worm quickly died. Shortly after, Cutter and Stephen were separated when two Precambrian Worms attacked them from in a lift, and Stephen narrowly escapes into a lift shaft by distracting the nearby Worms with his wristwatch's alarm. Stephen later came into an office, where he was forced to hide from the Worms there atop the desks and tables. When he fell from a desk into the fog, the Worms began attacking Stephen, but he was able to kill each of the attacking Worms by various means. Meanwhile, Jenny Lewis arrived at the skyscraper, and was attacked by a Worm which Cutter decapitated with a katana. Moments later, another Worm caught Cutter off-guard and tried to eat into his leg before Jenny decapitated the Worm with the katana. )]] Later, the two remaining executives remained in the meeting room, which the fog was quickly seeping into. Eventually, a Worm opened the meeting room's door, but one of the executives fended it off by beating it with a laptop. The team then found the executives and tried to evacuate the building with them, using leaf blowers to hold back the fog. While the team was leaving the building, Connor was attacked by a Worm in the stairway which swallowed him by the head in the stairwell. Cutter then saved Connor by cutting the Worm in half with the katana he had had for some time. )]] When the team realised that the Worms, being Precambrian lifeforms, are more used to a sulfuric atmosphere and therefore cannot survive long outside the fog, Connor and Abby used the ventilation shafts to reach the server room and turn up the temperature to force the fog out of the building. The two succeeded (along the way, Abby was ambushed by a Worm, but easily dispatched it with several well-placed kicks and karate chops). However, the heat also caused the Precambrian Worms to explode, releasing their parasitic young. Cutter then set off the building's fire sprinklers with a lighter, bringing the temperature back down and killing the Worms' spawn. Episode 5.5 When Convergence started in 2011, the Precambrian fog poured through an Anomaly into an Infant School classroom, allowing Precambrian Worms to come through and roam the classroom. Abby and Hilary Becker were called in to deal with the creatures. The duo were successfully able to quarantine the Worms, though the creatures' ultimate fate is unknown. Gallery Trivia *The Precambrian Worms came from further back in time than any other creatures ever known to have come through the Anomalies. *The Worms were the first and only creatures to be killed by Jenny Lewis. *Due to their similar physical features, some fans have speculated that the real-life prehistoric worm Ottoia was the young of the Precambrian Worms in the Primeverse. But this is unlikely, as Ottoia was an aquatic lifeform, while the Worms appeared to be land-based creatures. *The worms are near identical to the worms from King Kong movie (2005) which Primeval designer Daren Horley also worked on. *The Worms were the second creature who were capable of using humans as hosts, after the Parasite in Episode 1.4. Category:Creatures Category:Series 2 Creatures Category:Series 5 Creatures Category:Recurring creatures Category:Promotional Creatures Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Precambrian creatures Category:Prehistoric creatures Category:Invertebrates Category:Carnivores Category:Parasitic creatures Category:Creatures that cause deaths Category:Convergence creatures